


Companion

by Livinginfictions



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Adventure, Companionship, F/M, My First Work in This Fandom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-17
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-03-31 00:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3957535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livinginfictions/pseuds/Livinginfictions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cara leads a quiet, smart life, reading about adventures and wonderful things in her hundreds of books. She never thought she'd do anything big with her life, and most of the time she was ok with that, but there were nights she imagine running away from her town and going somewhere exciting!</p>
<p>She just might have gotten her wish, when one night she runs into a strange man with hair that needs constant ruffling, holding a silly doodad, and wearing a brown suit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Normal Day

Cara skipped up the two stone steps of the town library, giggling a little at the airy tinkle of the wind chimes next to the door. "Megan dear, would you mind clocking me in before you go?" She asked, as she pulled open the tall oak doors. Megan met Cara at the front desk and replied, "Already done. Say, why do you always call me dear? Is it an English thing or what?" Cara laughed and said, "I've told you a hundred times, I'm not English. I'm actually Irish, and a little Norwegian." Megan frowned and flipped her blond hair to the side with a manicured hand, "Then why do you have an accent? I've know you your whole life, and you've always had it. It makes no sense."

"It’s just how I was raised. Love it or hate it; it's not going to change." Cara said, moving behind the desk and sitting down in an old, worn chair with a sigh. Megan shrugged and pulled the door back open. "Whatever, I'll see you later girlie. Enjoy your books." she called sarcastically as she walked down the steps. When the door had closed, Cara spun the chair in a circle and looked up at the ceiling with bright green eyes. "Trust me, I will." She whispered.

After a couple more spins, Cara stood up and loaded her arms with the recently checked-in books that had been piled on the corner of her desk. Humming softly she wandered throughout the library, putting the books in their correct places. At one point she stopped, set the books she had left on a reading table, and tied her flame colored hair back in a quick braid. Playing with her hair was a habit of Cara's, she often changed her hairdo 5 or 6 times a day.

Once all the books were on their shelves again, Cara moved to the back of the library, where the old books were kept. She walked up and down the isles, admiring the frayed and faded books as though they were priceless artifacts. Which, to her they were, each and every one. Cara had been a lover of books since she was little. As she got older she grew especially fond of classics like Shakespeare, Mark Twain, and Charles Dickens. She also enjoyed more fanciful books, like the Grimm brother’s fairy tales, and even Harry Potter.

She picked out “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” and began reading it at once. She walked back to her desk with her head in the book, looking up every few seconds so she didn’t hit any bookcases. Cara sat back at her desk and made herself comfortable. She lived in a very small town in Nebraska, and not many people came to the library, so Cara didn’t worry much about someone needing help. In fact, she had often wondered why the library was so large, seeing as the town had never been big enough to need it.

The next day Cara slept in until 10, and then lazed around the house until noon. She ate, and spent the rest of the day doing odd chores and running errands. Around 9:30, as the sun began to set, Cara left the house.


	2. Meeting an Unusual Man

The sun had just set, leaving the clouds a light, fluffy, pink and purple color near the horizon. Cara admired them for a while as she walked down the dirt road leading out of town. She had just left city limits when she turned off the road and crossed a grassy field. Beginning at the edge of the field stretched a huge forest, filled with Oak's and Birch's, all of them giving the impression of mystery in an untamed, untouched, place.

She padded down an animal trail and breathed deeply, absorbing the relaxing, and musky scent of the wood. It steadily became harder to see, as the light left the sky, and the treetops covered up the moon. But Cara wasn't nervous, or scared. She'd been here many times before, and knew her way around pretty well. Soon she left the path and entered a small clearing, surrounded by thick undergrowth and trees with drooping branches. She went to center of it and laid down. "Only a couple minutes Cara." she told herself, before quickly falling asleep.

When Cara woke up the forest was almost completely dark, only a small amount of light breaking through the canopy. She followed the same trail back out to the field, often pausing to make sure she was going the right way, then looked up at the sky. The moon was high overhead and the stars were out in full force. For a moment Cara just stared up at them, she never got tired of searching for constellations, or trying to identify a planet from her own solar system.

Finally she brought her mind back to Earth and headed back to the road. She walked with her head down now, and her hands shoved in her pockets. She was trying to remember the way she felt when she first woke up. The surprise at not being at home, the curiosity, even the slight shiver of fear. It was all so, so not normal. And that's something Cara always craved, the strange and unusual. She only stayed in this small town out of respect for her parents, who had been born and died here.

She closed her eyes against the thought, she missed her parents. The car crash was still so fresh in her mind, even though it had happened 3 years ago. The voicemail from the hospital, racing across town and bursting into their room, only to find she was too late. They were gone, and she never got to say goodbye. 20 years old, and she was an orphan. Her mother and father had never mentioned any other family members, so she was all on her own.

Apparently Cara had forgotten to open her eyes, because the next moment she crashed into something. Well, she thought it was a thing, but when she opened her eyes, she found it was a man. He wore a brown suit, with a long jacket over top, and his dark hair stuck up all over the place. Cara immediately nodded her head slightly and said, "I'm sorry! I wasn't watching, my bad."

To her surprise the man grinned at her in a way that made her grin back and replied, "I wasn't watching either, no harm done though." Cara didn't recognize this man, he must not be from town, not from this Country by the sound of it.

"Um, awkward, personal question here. Where are you from?" Cara asked tentitavely. Mentally she smacked herself, you don't ask complete strangers where they're from! She smiled politely, it was too late to take it back.

"I'm from, well not here. Speaking of here, where is here exactly?" He looked around and casually ran his hands through his hair. He seemed genuinely curious so Cara decided to humour him.

"Right now you're on a dirt road, right outside of Tescott, Nebraska. Nebraska being in the United States, and the United States being on Earth, in the solar system." Cara worried she would sound sarcastic so she added, "Does that help you out?"

The man looked at her in surprise, "America? I don't come here all that often. I visited Utah for a while, didn't see a whole lot of scenery."

Did he travel a lot? His life must be so exciting! Cara was incredibly curious, but remembered her manners and stuck out her hand. "I'm Cara, it's nice to meet you." she then shrugged and smiled a little, "Even if we did meet by accident."

"Oh, those are the best meetings." the man said he shook her hand with a warm, strong, firm grip and gave her another brilliant smile. "And I'm the Doctor by the way."


	3. Let's Walk, and Not Be Lonely

 

"You're a doctor, what kind?" Cara asked. He travels a lot for a doctor, she thought to herself.

"Oh, all sorts of things, people, animals, machines." He answered happily.

Cara shook her head and smiled, "You're a doctor for machines? Aren't those called mechanics?"

He raised an eyebrow at her impossibly high, "Ooh, you're a clever one aren't you? Say, Cara, what are you doing wandering around at this time of night? Does your family know where you are?"

She shrugged at him, "I haven't got any family. And I'm a grown woman, surely I can wander around as much as I want."

"Of course you can!" The Doctor said quickly, flashing her another grin. "I used to do it all the time, still do actually. Peace and quiet, feels like you're the only one left in the world. Mind you, it does get pretty lonely, wouldn't you rather walk with someone?" He asked, his voice a lot quieter, more curious.

Cara thought about it for a moment, "Well, I suppose that would be nice, would _you_  like to walk with me? Then we both get the peace and quiet, but we don't have to be lonely."

The Doctor smiled at her, but this time it was different. The smile was more sad than anything, but with a little happiness near the edges. "That sounds like a brilliant idea Cara." He said quietly.

And then the grin was back. He stuck out his arm and when she looped her own around it they began walking towards town.

"So, I can't help but wonder, what is a British lady like yourself doing in the middle of the United States?" The Doctor asked casually.

'Oh, I'm not British. Well, my parents were, but I'm not, I mean, I am, but.....um, I grew up here." She'd forgotten how confusing it was to explain this to new people.

"Right.." he said, for all the world as if he understood.

"Well what about you Doctor?" She tried and failed to subtly change the subject. "You're a British man, and you're wandering about a little town in Nebraska."

"Well you see I'm not from Great Britain either, I guess we're both a little unusual." He looked down at her and flashed a grin and a wink, "And I'm just passing through, got a message.....say you haven't seen anything strange around town have you?"

Cara tried to think, but found nothing out of the ordinary. "Not really, this town doesn't change much. We don't even get interesting weather. Most of Nebraska gets things like tornadoes, or blizzards, and we don't get anything. They just go around us. It's safe, but boring."

The Doctor perked up at that, "Really? No big weather? It's calm all year 'round? Interesting." 

Though really, Cara knew it wasn't. Nothing about her town was interesting. Before she could say as much, a loud ding sounded. She looked around, but didn't find the source of the noise until the Doctor pulled a small, thing out of his pocket.

Looking at the various wires and knobs, the only way Cara could think to describe it was a gadget, or a thingamabob perhaps. There were bright lights flashing all the colours of the rainbow at the top of the whatchamacallit. 

By now they had totally stopped, Cara stood and watched the Doctor fiddle with his doohickey, turning on his heel in a circle until the flashing light stopped on a neon purple. 

"Say Cara, it was delightful talking to you, but I've got to run. Have a nice night!" With that he began walking away staring furiously at the doodad as though he could make sense of the strange whirring noises it was now emitting.

"Wait! Doctor where are you going?" she called out, he was now a ways down the street. With the moonlight on his face as he turned around she could see a brilliant, mad grin stretch across his face.

"Absolutely no idea!" he yelled back. Then he ran off, his gizmo buzzing and flashing away. 

"But you never told me your...name." Cara said, dropping her voice when she realized he couldn't hear her anymore. She sighed and began walking home, her mind racing with questions.

Where was he going?

Why was he here?

How did he get here?

Would she ever see him again?

And most importantly, sitting at the front of her mind,

 

_Doctor Who?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, is it a bad thing to upload everything I have at once? I mean, I know that WIP's aren't much fun, so I'd like to get a decent amount of stuff out here. But this fic isn't actually finished, so maybe I should pace myself so I can write more of it? Thoughts?


	4. More Than Just My Imagination

Over the next few days Cara started to wonder if this Doctor was even real.

She didn't see him around town at all and when she tried to get help from Megan she was met with teasing ("You met a Doctor, in the middle of the night, who had an accent just like yours, and he ran away with a machine that lit up like a disco ball? You must be on some expired sleeping pills."), followed by annoyance ("I get it, you had a weird dream, can you please move on?!").

Maybe she had imagined it all, she didn't have any proof it was real, it could all have been a dream.

By the third day she was convinced the man had never existed, and settled back into her normal routine, getting up and eating her Raisin Bran like a good girl and going to the library to pick out a new book to read. She was currently working her way through the Literature section and had just finished Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'. She was considering Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein' as she walked in the door, but stopped short when Megan didn't give her usual quip about it being Cara's day off. She looked at the front desk and found the imaginary man flicking through a dusty old book.

"You!" She said loudly, shocking him from his reading. She marched up to the desk and stared at him.

"Me! Hello, Cara right? Fancy seeing you here." He didn't seem the least bit fazed by her stare and just smiled that same grin from the night they'd met.

In the daylight she could finally see his face properly. Sticking up from his head was an absolute mess of brown hair that looked like he'd run his fingers through it a thousand times. His chocolate brown eyes filled with what looked like a hundred lifetimes contradicted a smile that wouldn't look out of place on an 8 year old.

"You...you're not real." She whispered, confusion mixed with relief at not being totally crazy.

The Doctor looked down at himself seriously and patted his arms and sides. "Well I feel pretty real, why wouldn't I be?"

Now that she looked back on the past few days Cara felt ridiculous. Of course he was real, she had completely overreacted. "No reason, nevermind, it's silly. But, where is Megan? She was supposed to work today."

"The nice girl with the blonde hair?" At Cara's nod he continued, "I told her I was doing a bit of an inspection, so she took the day off. I needed some privacy for some..research."

"You needed privacy, but you didn't actually close the library?" She asked skeptically.

"I didn't want to pull anyone away from their reading!" He shut the book in front of him and stood up, leaning toward her over the counter. "How would you like to help me out with a kind of, investigation?"

"I thought you told me you were a Doctor?" Cara shook her head at him. "And why would Megan believe you were an inspector? This library hasn't had an inspection since it was built."

The Doctor stuck his hand in his pocket and pulled out a little wallet, which he flipped open to show her a blank piece of paper. "Psychic paper, very helpful little thing. Shows people whatever I want them to see. Now how about that investigation?"

Cara wanted to argue, but this was the most interesting to happen to her in years. Even if the man Was crazy, she wanted to see it through. She looked at him a moment before clicking her tongue. "Alright, I'll help you. But first I need an honest answer."

The Doctor looked at her, frowning a little. "Of course Cara, I would never lie to you."

"Doctor Who?"

She watched as the Doctor's eyes darkened, and flicked away from her. Just as quickly he was smiing at her again. "Just the Doctor thanks." The voice didn't match his face, and was quietly sad.

Cara got the distinct feeling, that the Doctor had just done the very thing he'd sworn not to. He had lied to her. But the name didn't sit with her like a lie, it felt like a very accurate description of him. She decided to leave it for the time being and nodded. 

"Okay, just the Doctor, what can I do for you?" She asked.

**Author's Note:**

> Btw, yes her name is supposed to be Cara. I actually started writing this before Clara Oswald was even a character in the show.


End file.
